Roll-off containers are often used in the collection and transportation of residential, commercial and industrial refuse such as at construction sites and for the transportation of fly ash and the like. Roll-off containers are typically employed with a tilt bed truck in which the container is loaded onto the truck by tilting the bed and winching of the container onto the bed as the bed is lowered. In some cases, a hydraulic cylinder is employed in place of a winch. Rollers at the container corners and along the tilt bed guide rails ease loading of the container onto the tilt bed. The container bottom typically includes guide rails to interact with the guide rails and rollers on the truck bed which align the container with the truck bed during loading. Such containers are typically open-topped to ease top loading. The containers include a rear door which is opened to allow dumping of the refuse or fly ash after transportation. Because of the open top often the refuse in the container becomes wet and during cold weather can freeze. When such containers are employed to transport fly ash, in cold weather freezing of the moist fly ash is common. Dumping of a container holding frozen refuse or fly ash is difficult or impossible.
The use of hot exhaust gases from a tractor to heat a refuse trailer is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,197 owned by a common assignee as the present application. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,197, a refuse trailer is provided which includes an exhaust nipple and a duct system to allow heating of the trailer by the tractor exhaust. However, in the use of roll-off containers, it has heretofore been unknown to provide heat from the truck exhaust to the roll-off container due to the difficulty of making a connection between the truck exhaust and the roll-off container. The motion of the container in both vertical and horizontal directions during loading and unloading makes convenient and secure connecting of the truck exhaust to the roll-off container unknown in the prior art.